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Tesla Sues Employee Alleged To Have Stolen Gigabytes of Data (arstechnica.com) 153

Posted by BeauHD from the bad-apples dept.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, Tesla sued a former employee who worked in its Gigafactory in Nevada, accusing him of stealing trade secrets. The lawsuit appears to be what CEO Elon Musk was referring to recently when he said that production of the Model 3 had been sabotaged. Musk said that there are "more" alleged saboteurs.

According to the civil complaint that was filed in federal court in Nevada, Tesla accused Martin Tripp, who began working in Sparks as a "process technician" in October 2017, of exporting company data: "Tesla has only begun to understand the full scope of Tripp's illegal activity, but he has thus far admitted to writing software that hacked Tesla's manufacturing operating system ("MOS") and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities. This includes dozens of confidential photographs and a video of Tesla's manufacturing systems."
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Tesla Sues Employee Alleged To Have Stolen Gigabytes of Data More

Tesla Sues Employee Alleged To Have Stolen Gigabytes of Data

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  • And ppl want Tesla to go to CHina? LOL (Score:5, Interesting)

    by WindBourne ( 631190 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @04:24PM (#56818554) Journal
    This will be common amongst the employees there. Of course, I would like to know who this data went to. Tesla's REAL IP has never been about the car, but how to get their manufacturing costs way down.
    And considering that only Ford has grown this fast, they have been amazing.

    • Re:And ppl want Tesla to go to CHina? LOL (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Mr D from 63 ( 3395377 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @04:28PM (#56818568)
      This sounds like spying/hacking not sabotage. Did the guy actually disrupt any manufacturing or not?

      Musk better get used to this stuff, every other industry has to deal with it.

      • Re:And ppl want Tesla to go to CHina? LOL (Score:5, Interesting)

        by GrimSavant ( 5251917 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @05:17PM (#56818818)
        Tesla's complaint says that he wrote software that hacked Tesla's manufacturing operating system in addition to the data exfiltration. So, maybe that was sabotage? Maybe not?

        We'll have to wait until they provide more evidence as to what happened, though they might not do that immediately if they are still trying to figure out what happened, especially if law enforcement is involved. Tesla will have to put up or shut up in the discovery process of the law suit if they are going to press that, though.
        • Seems like Musk is OK to talk about what happened. Are you suggesting he doesn't really yet know?
          • Musk is saying himself that they don't have the full picture, so I don't see what would be controversial about that. The possibility that he is saying or speculating too much has already been raised, that he may be going too far out on the limb to insinuate that there may outside actors involved in this. If true, that could potentially be a criminal conspiracy.

            He hasn't shown the evidence he has yet, and not publicly airing evidence in the investigation phase prior to the actual trial phase is normal, th
            • Makes sense. My previous response came out a bit 'snarkier' than intended. My apologies.

            • The alleged perp claims he is a whistleblower, and that is a plausible though not necessarily to be trusted story. Even if that is sincere, Musk cannot assume there is truth in such assertions. It is likely at this point the Musk has sufficient evidence that lots of data have been sent...somewhere.

              Is the intended or actual destination something "innocent" like some investigative journalists? Is the alleged perp getting paid for that? Are there other third parties willing pay? Are there any deals in the

    • Re: And ppl want Tesla to go to CHina? LOL (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      but how to get their manufacturing costs way down.

      This makes no sense. I mean, Tesla's a company that hasn't exactly been very profitable so far. Their vehicles aren't known for being inexpensive, and buyers often rely on government grants or other subsidies in order to afford them. Car manufacturing isn't a new field, and there are numerous existing competitors that have been around for decades. It's like you're saying Tesla's main strength is something that it doesn't currently seem to be very good at.

      • Re: (Score:2, Troll)

        by mark_reh ( 2015546 )

        Have you seen how much Teslas cost? People who buy Teslas don't need govt hand-outs in order to afford a Tesla. The govt hand-out is welfare for the rich.

        • It's pump priming. And it's worked. Everyone will benefit from the switch to EVs.

    • Different employee than yesterday I think. This seems to have to do with stealing trade secrets from the battery factory. That would seem to have some amount of plausibility. I seriously doubt that other automakers much give a damn about Tesla's vehicle technology. They can probably build an overpriced EV that runs into firetrucks without stealing secrets, and if they do need to know anything, they'll buy a Tesla and take it apart. But there are other Lion battery makers who might well like to know wha

      • Different employee than yesterday I think.

        That's what isn't clear.

        Anyhow, 'gigabits of data' could just be a couple of videos of drivers abusing AP.

    • Re:And ppl want Tesla to go to CHina? LOL (Score:4, Informative)

      by fozzy1015 ( 264592 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @07:53PM (#56819582)

      Tesla's REAL IP has never been about the car, but how to get their manufacturing costs way down. "

      Haha! Oh, wait, you're serious? Let me laugh even harder. Tesla has more employees per car produced then every other manufacturer, even when taking into consideration they own their own service centers and don't depend on a dealer network. Musk wasted billions thinking he was smarter than everyone else by trying to over automate final assembly. Almost a year after the Model 3 went into production, billions have been wasted and the total number of cars built is barely over 30K. Tesla is a farce when it comes to efficient manufacturing.

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by 110010001000 ( 697113 )
        Give it up. Rei and Windborne have a lot invested in Tesla. They will never see any flaws. $10 billion in debt with no way out? No problem! Just add another "production line".

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sad_ ( 7868 )

      I would like to know who this data went to.

      well, as you suggest in the subject, it probably is china.
      makes sense; tesla doesn't have a factory there yet, but china wants to compete with/copy tesla.

    • It's not a matter of wanting to, it's having to. Trump's trade war means US manufacturers will have to move production from the US to China to get around counter-tariffs.

  • If you don't like your job (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Jahoda ( 2715225 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @04:51PM (#56818656)
    Then quit.

    It never ceases to amaze me the gross sense of entitlement that certain types of people have. Tesla gave this dude a job, which he felt was beneath him. He performed that job poorly, and Tesla continued to employ him. The way he thanked Tesla was to commit corporate espionage, access systems which were not his property, make libelous statements, and steal. Now he will never be employed in his chosen field in any meaningful role, ever again. Destitute from civil financial judgement against him And that is after he gets out of prison for the criminal charges which will surely be forthcoming due to his unauthorized access of Tesla systems.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Nos. ( 179609 )

      There's nothing saying he didn't like his job. In a company of any decent size, there's bound to be people, that offered the right incentives, would share company secrets with a competitor. Sometimes it's an act of revenge for perceived wrong doing, other times it's simply that the incentive is enough to overcome morals.

    • Re:If you don't like your job (Score:4, Informative)

      by Ogive17 ( 691899 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @07:47PM (#56819560)
      I'm not taking sides however I just ran across this article with a story from the ex-employee. He claims to be a whistle blower and that Tesla has been lying to look better.

      http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/technology/tesla-sues-employee/index.html

      I'll just wait for the daily Tesla updates here on /.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by rhazz ( 2853871 )
        He's contacted several media outlets already and none of them have run his story (yet). I guess if any of his claims had merit then we'll see something. Personally I'm leaning more towards personal greed - he tried to sell a story to the media, they didn't bite (except CNN apparently), so he found something that Tesla's enemies wanted instead.

    • "Then do it really half-assed. That's the AMERICAN way!"

      ~Homer J Simpson.

  • why anybody would want to steal this kind of information. It's almost as if they don't want Tesla to succeed.

  • Strap him in a Tesla on a Falcon Heavy and launch his ass to Mars!

  • I wonder if Tesla insisted on the employee signing an arbitration agreement. If so, this case might not go the way Musk thinks.

  • Comes up every time media copyright infringement is in the news. This guy didn't deprive Tesla of anything, so he clearly didn't steal anything, right? Information wants to be free? Let's hear all the usual tropes.

    • While I agree you (i.e. I see value in copyrights existing, though I'll admit to not liking the direction things are going with effectively infinite terms), it's worth pointing out that there's a fundamental difference between the two situations: creating a copy of music doesn't affect whether the music is public or not, whereas creating a copy of Tesla's proprietary data affects whether that data is public. Put differently, when it comes to music, the genie is already out of the bottle; the data is already

    • Re:Can't steal digital data, right Slashdot? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Knightman ( 142928 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @06:06PM (#56819086)

      I cannot fathom why anyone would mod you up as insightful.

      There is a huge difference between copyright infringement and industrial espionage.

      Theft of information can deprive someone of something - exclusivity. Theft of a song may deprive a record company or artist of a sale, but not exclusivity.

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by Kjella ( 173770 )

        There is a huge difference between copyright infringement and industrial espionage.

        There's also a huge similarity, it's been copied not taken. So if you object to the word stolen when it comes to copyright infringement you should also object to the word stolen when it comes to espionage. At least unless any documents, prototypes, backup disks or similar was actually removed from Tesla's possession.

        Theft of information can deprive someone of something - exclusivity. Theft of a song may deprive a record company or artist of a sale, but not exclusivity.

        I guess you should tell these dumbasses they don't know what they're talking about:

        To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

        • Not so much when patents are involved (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Uberbah ( 647458 ) on Thursday June 21, 2018 @08:56AM (#56821604)

          There's also a huge similarity, it's been copied not taken. So if you object to the word stolen when it comes to copyright infringement you should also object to the word stolen when it comes to espionage. At least unless any documents, prototypes, backup disks or similar was actually removed from Tesla's possession.

          Scenario A: Joe Blow makes a high-quality rip of Black Panther a week before it was released on blue ray and torrents it. Out of the ten thousand people that download it, 800 would have otherwise bought the disk. 800 x $25 = Disney is out $20,000 on a movie approaching $1.4 billion at the box office.

          Scenario B: Joe Blow is a research assistant at Merck, and realizes his team is on the verge of a breakthrough on a cancer drug. Rather than get a pat on the back from his boss, he takes his findings to try and sell to his buddy who's an executive at Pfizer. If the corporate espionage is successful and Pfizer gets the patent first, Merck is out a hundred million in profits.

          Still think corporate espionage is "hugely similar" to copyright infringement?

      • I should have been modded "Troll" probably.

        Your post does not address my implied point. There are countless Slashdot posters who insist that unless the owner is physically deprived of something, there was no harm done or value lost, because they still have the thing.

        As you stated, exclusivity of access to information is intangible, yet has value. It is what trade secrets and employment agreements protect. Just like how exclusivity of distribution rights to information is intangible yet has value, i.e

    • A bit of difference: Tesla never intended to publish this information, and now is deprived of exclusivity.

  • There's just too fucking much motivation in having a company not do well. It's a perverse motivation on a massive scale. Even if 99.99% of shorters are ethical people, there is still going to be that 0.01% of shorts that aren't.

  • Why does Tesla get a pass? (Score:4, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @05:51PM (#56818996)

    Why is everyone posting on here Tesla's side of the story?

    The employee is speaking out now, claiming his actions were part of a whistle-blowing effort. If this was GM or Ford, the Slashdot community would trust the whiste-blower; why are people here trusting the corporation instead?

    http://money.cnn.com/2018/06/20/technology/tesla-sues-employee/index.html

    • Exactly. It is the cult of Musk. Tech people like Rei and Windbourne and Bruce think that "technologists" are going to solve all our problems. The real fact is that Musk is a flim flam artist who made a lot of money selling a scummy company we all hated (PayPal).

      • Re:Why does Tesla get a pass? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @11:52PM (#56820324)

        The real fact is that Musk is a flim flam artist

        So despite reaching a massive milestone in rocketry with SpaceX, you still call him a flimflam artist? Damn dude, what does someone have to do to convince you that they're legit?

        His timelines are overly optimistic but he's always managed to accomplish what he claimed. But hey, facts are annoying when they get in the way of illogical hatred, right?

    • Fair enough, and Musk has a darn good publicist.

      But, from the information available, I am much more likely to believe Tesla than this guy. The one thing that does jump out though is if he was capable of doing what Tesla claims, he was grossly under appreciated, and if he did it in 6-9 months they do not have adequate controls in place.

    • Here is what he says:

      "I am being singled out for being a whistleblower. I didn't hack into system. The data I was collecting was so severe, I had to go to the media,"

      It's hard to take him seriously when he didn't go to the media until now.

    • There's quite a bit of asymmetry in this, in multiple ways. In raw dollar value terms, the downside risk for Tesla is a lot bigger, and if they defame him they could be on the hook for a whole lot more money than Tesla could ever hope to win in a lawsuit, for no more complicated reason than he would go bankrupt over far smaller sums of money than Tesla would. Tesla's reputation, for good or ill, also has a bigger stake than the reputation of the ex-employee, and if they abuse the legal system to slander a g

    • If this was GM or Ford, the Slashdot community would trust the whiste-blower; why are people here trusting the corporation instead?

      Because /. is heavily infested with the Faithful, members and True Believers in the divinity of His Holiness Elon Musk.

    • "And he claims that Tesla inflated the number of Model 3's it made when it said it had built 2,020 of the cars in the seven days prior to a much anticipated April 3 report. Tripp said the actual number is closer to 1,900."

      A true whistleblower, the world needs to know!
      Think of all those poor shareholders being lead astray.

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by bloodhawk ( 813939 )
        if true it is actually a massive deal and if proven will result in very serious fines or imprisonment for execs for securities fraud, The SEC takes intentionally providing false information to the market very seriously.

        • The SEC has civil jurisdiction, not criminal. They can only levy fines and even then rarely do so.

        • Sure, if true it's an issue for the SEC, and an incredibly stupid and pointless act of fraud for a company already under fire from many directions.

          Does it seem like the kind of thing to weigh on a person's conscience to turn whistleblower? Misreporting sales by 120 units? Having more scrap widgets than expected?

          • misreporting manufacturing capacity by 5%, huge deal. more scrap than expected probably minor. the manufacturing misreporting if true is market affecting and outright fraud if true.
    • If he was a whistle-blower, would he not be providing evidence or data to a government agency instead of a competitor?

    • Why is everyone posting on here Tesla's side of the story?

      The employee is speaking out now, claiming his actions were part of a whistle-blowing effort.

      And? Whistleblowing doesn't make exfiltrating data any more right. This is a private company here not some secret government agency that has spent years hiding from the public eye doing shady shit.

      If this was GM or Ford, the Slashdot community would trust the whiste-blower;

      Oh I trust the Whistleblower for GM or Ford too. I trust that he would be prosecuted in the same way. I trust that the response against him would be the same. Tough shit, he got caught. Just because he works for a company that spends a lot of time in the limelight.

      why are people here trusting the corporation instead?

      Trusting with what? With firing an employee that g

  • So when is it that "employee alleged to have stolen" is changed to "employee who has admitted stealing." The Cambridge English dictionary defines allege as: - to say that someone has done something illegal or wrong without giving proof: To Allege is to imply doubt. There is no doubt. Mr. Tripp has admitted to "writing software that hacked Tesla’s manufacturing operating system ("MOS") and to transferring several gigabytes of Tesla data to outside entities. This includes dozens of confidential photo

  • wonka (Score:4, Funny)

    by bugs2squash ( 1132591 ) on Wednesday June 20, 2018 @06:56PM (#56819318)
    he should throw out all the employees and close the factory until he can re-staff it with oompa-lumpas.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by elrous0 ( 869638 )

      Oompa Loompas are hard to find these days. Turns out that LoompaLand species never evolved a natural immunity to polio or most STD's. And those little fuckers are all anti-vaxxers and just WILL NOT wear condoms. So they've taken a pretty hard hit on their numbers. Wonka even had to start begging for H1B's.

    • he should throw out all the employees and close the factory until he can re-staff it with oompa-lumpas.

      Err why? Are you somehow implying that exactly the same response wouldn't occur at any other company?

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